Puzzle



Petented ay 27, 1924a ALBERT CUSHING CREHOBE, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO.

PUZZLE,

Application filed April 7, 1922. Serial No. 550,556.

Puzzle, of which the following is a speci-v fication.

The object instruction, entertainment or amusement. The puzzle may belikened to a game of solitaire.

To illustrate the puzzle and state the rules to be followed andmaterial. to be employed reference will be made to one specific exampleof it. though many obvious variations from this one form are possibleWithout departing from the fundamental principles of this invention asset forth in the claims. A reference to the well known sixteen-blockpuzzle will assist in explaining the new one. In that puzzle a shallowsquare box is filled with sixteen square blocks numbered from one tosixteen, all

being laid in one layer on the plane surface of the bottom of the box,the sixteen blocks almost exactly filling it and forming a square withfour blocks on each side. One

of these blocks is then removed from the box, say number sixteen, thusmaking it possible to slide one of the adjacent blocks either in a.vertical column orl in a horizontal row along the smooth surface of thebottom of the box into the place left vacant by the absence of blocknumber sixteen. In this manner by a succession ofmoves sliding differentadjacent blocks into the one always vacant square the original order ofarrangement of the blocks may be completely changed. The puzzle is toarrange the blocksaccording to any predetermined order or sequence afterplacing the blocks in the box at random., and to do so by executingsuccessive moves as described` ,moving but one block at a time into the5 one vacant square without lifting any block from contact with thebottom of the box. Such a puzzle or problem may evidently be worked outon an ordinary checker board by providing fifteen number-ed men andvexercising some care not to disarrange the men by improper-moves. or byjarring the board. The evident purpose of thefbox above mentioned is toprevent automatically any impifoper moves due to possible accidents Itappears at once "to one using a of the invention is to afford' checkerboard that a similar puzzle might be proposed by using a square ofthree. five, seven or eight on a side instead of a square of four on aside, or by using some other limitation of the indefinite board such asa. rectangle instead of a square, or several rectangles combined.VVViththe square of` three, however, the problem has no solutiongenerally, since byl observing the rules any random orderfof the mencannot be converted into any predetermined order.

In the invention now to be described and claimed use is made ofa hexagonboard instcad of one based upon the square referred to above. Just asisthe case with acollection of square blocks, so a`collection ofhexagonal Vblocks can Vbe laid adjacent ;to

each other to cover a given area leaving no interstices or open spacesbetween lolocks. When one hexagon block is removed from the midst ofsuch a collection of hexagon blocks closely packed,none of the'siXblocks adjacent to this one can be slidinto the space thus vacatedwithout disturbing the other blocks. This is a new condition that doesnot apply to a formation using square bloc-ks. To facilitate thetransfer of other blocks intoV a vacant hexagonal space without raisinganyblock off from the surface it is proposed to use split or halfhexagon blocks intesad of complete hexagons, each hexagon to bedividedby adiagonal through its center from point to point of the hexagon-thisbeingthe longest straight line that lcan be drawn within the hexagon. Inthe accompanying drawings Figure y1 illustrates the hexagon' board and:the method by which one hexagon may be moved into anadjoining.vacanthexagonal space by the useof split hexagon blocks.

lFigure 2- shows one fiform of the puzzle, or game of solitaire basedupon the hexagonal board. i u InFigurel is shown acentralhexagon, cbnbzczdz -with its center c1 .at the center of the -whole figure. Thisis surrounded by six. other equal hexagons`l lo-f which ae/:bod is one`each divided into two halves asrepresented b v a full diagonal linethrough 'its center.-- The dividing line for' the hexagon aefbcd is thediagonal e7?, and the half hexagon aefbr representing one block Visgivenl thenumber 1. i, The other half; of this hexagomabcd,representinga separate4 block is givenv the number Z Each of the susvlos

other five hexagons surrounding the central one is similarly divided byone full diagonal line, thus representing the half hexagon blocksnumbered 3, 4; 5, 6; 7, 8; 9, 10 and 11, 12 in pairs.

The group of seven hexagons shown in Figure 1 is typical of and mayrepresent a portion o-f an indefinite hexagon board.` surrounding thesethere` inay be any number of other equal hexagons with which we are. notnow concerned, except that, when theyrepresent blocks closely packed ina box, they serve the-purpose of holding each block firmly inits place.Let it now be supposed' thatl the central hexagon 0bb1b2c2al2 of Figurel isa vacant space not occupied by'blocks, whilel allother spaces uponthe board. are filled with blocks. It is evident that'none ofthe sixblocks adjacentto this vacant space could be. slid into the vacant spacewithout moving any of the other blocks orV rasing any from the surface,provided these blocks Vwhere complete undivided hexagons. Andit is alsoevident that, if such hexagon blocks aredivided by diagonal lines intosplit hexagon blocks as shown in Figure 1, some of them inay be slidinto the central vacant hexagonal space immediately in one move oroperation, while others cannot be thus immediately moved but require asuccession. of'moves. A block which may be'v thus immediately moved isthehalf hexagon abad designated by the number 2. This may be-slid firstso that the point a moves toa,, bv to b1 and c to 01,. the newboundaries of this block beingyindicatedv in thefigure by dottedllines.` It may be slid second so that the point a, moves to a,, b1 tobzland 01 to 02, which locates the final position of block 2, designated'by 2' in its new position, namely agbgczal,V filling half ofthecentralihexagon originally vacant.

Ina similar manner it is evident that the halfhexagon block a-efbnumbered 1 may be.

slid-into the position l'ithus filling therest ofthe central hexagonalspace and completely vacating the space aefbccl aty firstoccupied'by theblocks 1 and 2. In like manner it isd evident that-the surroundingadjacent'hexagons 3, 4.; 7, 8; or 9. 10 might have been transferred' bysliding into' the vacant h'exagonal'space at the center, but that thethediagonal of the hexagon must point 'co-- blocks' 5, 6 and 11', 12could not have been thus directly transferred becausek of the way orlthe direction in which the diagonals of these'hexagons lie. To effectanimmediate transfer of'a block the line of'division or wards or touchthe vacant hexagonal space with one of itsendss There are but threepossiblerelativedirections that the line of division or the diagonals ofthe hexagons Inayfltake, and these are shown in Figure 1 by the blocks1, 3 and 5, each having a p different direction* for its'f'diagonal, abfor,

block l, bg for 3 and hk for 5, making angles of 120o with each other.When the direction of the diagonal of a hexagon block is once assigned,it will keep this direction throughout the Whole series of moves to beexecuted because there is no way to turn one of the blocks aroundthrough 120 without disturbing other blocks or lifting a block out ofits place, which is not supposed to be allowed. In placing a collectionof split hexagon blocks in a box designed to hold them the directions ofthe diagonal lines of division of. the. hexagons make a: difference, andafford much flexibilityin the design of any specific puzzle7 for thesedirections may either be regarded or disregarded.

A preferred form of hexagon board consists of a central hexagonsurrounded by six other adjacent hexagons, as described in Figure 1, andthese again surrounded by twelve other adjacent hexagons as shown inFigure 2. A preferred way of arranging the diagonalsV of the splithexagons is also illustrated in Figure 2, each hexagon having but onediagonal line drawn across it as representing its line of division. Thenineteen hexagon spaces thus required are filled with split hexagonblocks, which are numbercd consecutively from one to nineteen, onenumber only being placed upon one-half only of each split hexagon block,its other halfbeingleft blank.

The blocks may be held in their places by same size as all the, otherblocks., shown by the hatched areasat talag; b1b'2; 0102; 62102; eez andflf,, thesel blocks thusforming a part of the boxorV container which fitthe contourv ofthe group of nineteenhexagons shown. Any suitable covermay beprovided for the box which completely covers all of the blocks sothat they will remain in their places when the box is transported as inmailing, for example.

It is to benoticed that all the number-s are placed'upon the blocks inFigure 2 so thatthey are right side up when EF is taken as the top ofthebox and BC the bottom of it. This placingof numbers or characters infixed positions on each block makes it possible to be sure that thediagonal lines of division of each hexagon have the directions assignedto them in Figure 2, for When the numbers are seen right side up thedirections of their diagonals allso correspond.. with their directionsas drawn in Figure 2. To assist in distinguishing the blocks numbered 6and 9, which figures resemble each other when one of them is inhalfhexagon with a numbered half to form a complete hexagon, to which onlyone number is assigned. In this manner the whole box may be filled withthe blocks with every number right side up, but the order of the numberstaken at random will differ from the regular sequence shown in Figure 2.Then remove from the box one complete hexagon, say number nineteen, andby moving one block at a time into the space thus made vacant, andanother block into the space left vacant by the first move proceed toarrange all of the blocks in the exact order shown in Figure 2 withoutlifting any block off from the bottom of the box.

lhat I claim as my invention is:

l. The herein described block puzzle employing blocks having the shapeof half a regular hexagon the said hexagon blocks having been divided bya diagonal line from point to opposite point, arranged in close-proximity to each other so as to cover the surface of a suitablecontainer and to form hexagons leaving no appreciable intersticesbetween the blocks, with the single exception that one completehexagonal space is to be left vacant, into which space some one of theadjacent blocks may be moved along the surface of the container withoutdisturbing the positions of the other blocks, as and for the purposedescribed.

2. The herein described puzzle employing blocks having the shape of halfa regular hexagon the said hexagon blocks having been divided by adiagonal line from point to opposite point, arranged in close proxim ityto each other so as to cover the surface of a suitable container and toform hexagons leaving no appreciable interstices between the blocks withthe single exception that one complete hexagon space is to be leftvacant, the directions of the diagonals or longest sides of the splithexagon blocks being Iixed in accordance with any predetermined scheme,as and for the purpose described.

The herein described puzzle employng split hexagon blocks, the line ofdivision of the hexagon being a diagonal line from point to oppositepoint, to form a compact group of hexagons covering the surface of asuitable container without interstices between the blocks except thatone complete hexagon space is to be left vacant when operating thepuzzle, each hexagon space being assigned a number or character, therebeing as many numbered blocks less one as there are hexagon spaces inthe container, as and for the purpose described.

Li. The herein described puzzle employing split hexagon blocks arrangedin hexagons in compact form so as to cover the flat bottom surface of asuitable container, but half of the blocks being given a number orcharacter, each hexagon space in the container except one being filledby two half hexagon blocks, the one having a number or character and theother being left blank, as and for the purpose described.

ALBERT CUSHING CREHORE.

